Iron cuffs feel cold against her skin. She’s kneeling on a damp floor, with wrists pulled up by long iron chains from the ceiling, or something like that. She’s too tired to raise her head up and the surrounding is too dark for her to see the ceiling. From the chilly but humid air and the rough cold rock surface under her knees, she’s probably held captive in a cave. The blood on her face is trickling down, forming a small puddle just below her chin.

A pair of legs are pacing in front of her, without a sound, but she can sense the impatience and excitement, like a cat playing with its prey. It’s just that now she’s a mouse, the little pathetic rodent she used to play with.

"So?" His voice blooms, echoes from the further side of the cave, cold, like a stream of frozen water seeping into her body. It is distorted like metal rubbing against glass, causing every limb of the listener to constrict against their will. "Still stubborn huh?"

Footsteps approach her. The owner lifts Chaeyoung’s head with the tip of his shoes, forcing her to look up. She doesn’t know if her eyes were blurred from the torture or because of the limited light in this cave, but she couldn't make out the features of his face, which seems to change every second. The only thing that doesn’t change is the color of his hair, a familiar dark orange.

"Or do you want to share their fate?"

He waves his hand to the right, where two people are lying on the ground, unconscious or dead, Chaeyoung can't tell. One person is tall with short brown hair, and the other is pale-skinned with signature blood-red hair.

"Still not talking?" He doesn’t give Chaeyoung time to react. "Let's see if you still want to keep silent after seeing her."

Another person is dragged by the shoulder into the room by two men. Although the person’s face is obstructed from her view, Chaeyoung can recognize that figure anywhere, the one she has lived with for nearly a decade. The blood that seems to have frozen in her heart suddenly boils, rising to the top of her head. She lungs forward, but her hands are like jelly, and she barely has the strength to raise them up, let alone break free from the chains.

“Mina!” Chaeyoung screams, but her voice is just barely louder than a whisper. “Let her go!”

The man in front of her just let out a shrill laugh, resounding all over the rocky walls, making every organ in her body shaking in the most uneasy way. Suddenly, he stops and looks straight at her, his orange hair is up like a mane, making him even more furious. The golden gaze locks with her owns, just like the eyes in the forest that day. Using the last of her remaining strength, Chaeyoung yells and lungs forward, the chains clinking under her pull.

***

Chaeyoung jolts up from her lying position, but something is bounding her back. She opens her eyes but the blinding light is too much for her vision. Even with the impaired vision, she tries desperately to fight her way out of whatever is binding her, but all she can manage to do is waving and struggling feebly. She screams, or at least feeling herself screaming, but no sound reaches her ears.

In her frenzied panic, Chaeyoung’s hands are suddenly gripped by a pair of very soft hands, and she immediately recognizes the touch. A sharp pain shot up in her left shoulder slows down her movement. She blinks a few times in an attempt to regain her vision, and slowly, Mina’s face comes to her focus. Without Chaeyoung’s frantic struggle, Mina’s hands have come up to cup the younger’s face, successfully drawing the attention to her. Mina’s lips are moving, but no sound comes out, or not anything Chaeyoung can hear.

But Mina's tear-stained face makes Chaeyoung unable to think anymore. She wants to wipe away those tears, she wants to hold the girl, to make sure that Mina’s here, not lying unconsciously in a dark cave, but her body is betraying her. Her hands are heavy as lead, and she can’t hear a thing Mina says, making her question if this is just her imagination. Moments later, a figure runs towards her, a man with long, flowing hair trying to pull Mina away from her. No! Chaeyoung tries to get up, but her body gives up from the overexertion, her eyes darken, and fell unconscious again.

Mina chews her lip, trying to restrain herself so Yoochun can examine Chaeyoung, even though she herself wants nothing but to the smaller girl in her arms and not let anyone touch her. Her Chaeyoung, her little kitten, lays motionless on the infirmary bed. Her heart aches, like someone is tying it up with barbed wires, but she tries not to cry, concentrating on answering the healer's question about Chaeyoung's reaction in the brief moment she's awake.

"You say she didn't react when you called her name?" The healer asks and Mina nods grimly, not trusting her voice to speak.

"Hmm." The healer grimaces. "Maybe it's because of the trauma. But the ear wound is almost completely healed, it is unlikely that it will affect the hearing too much. We'll have to wait until she wakes up again to find out."

***

The next time Chaeyoung wakes up, the first thing she feels is Mina's familiar scent, and her even breathing on the right side. It calms Chaeyoung better than any magical potion there is. She squints, trying to adjust to sudden light when she opens her eyes, much calmer than last time. Looking around, she finds herself lying on one of the two beds in a familiar room, it’s the demigod’s infirmary. She has survived, somehow, and returned. But she thought… Was it all a dream?

Chaeyoung turns to look at the person sleeping next to her. Except for the dark circle under Mina’s eyes, the girl looks healthy, and unharmed. Her gaze traces the constellation of beauty marks on Mina’s face, her pretty high nose, to her slightly pouting lips. Mina is beautiful, enchanting like the stories about fairies and princesses in her childhood fairy tales. She reaches out, wanting to ease the slight frown between Mina’s eyebrows, but something is holding her back. It isn’t chains, luckily; it’s the white bandage that’s covering her left shoulder and arm, and maybe her leg. Chaeyoung can’t really see her legs in this position.

Chaeyoung’s little struggle has pulled Mina awake. When two pair of eyes lock into each other, it feels like time has stopped. It’s been just a few days since the last time they saw each other, but to them, it feels like a lifetime of separation.

Everything happens in a split second, but Chaeyoung can see it clearly like a slow-motion movie. Mina jolts up, her dark eyes widening in surprise, and embraces the younger girl in her arms.

"Chaeyoung! You woke up! Oh dear gods."

Mina leans back from the embrace to take a look at Chaeyoung's face, but her hands hold tight on the girl's body, as though if she loosens for a moment, Chaeyoung would go off into danger again.

"Wait, can you hear me?" Mina says again, louder than her normal voice.

Chaeyoung nods, finding no strength to form words. is so dry that she can probably only make croaking sounds instead of words.

"Does it hurt anywhere?" Mina frowns, biting her lips nervously.

Chaeyoung shakes her head and smiles reassuringly. Mina doesn’t look at all convinced, but she doesn’t argue.

“Let me get you some water, you must be thirsty.”

Reluctantly, she lets go of Chaeyoung to retrieve a cup from the table. Her hands are on Chaeyoung again as she helps Chaeyoung sit up a little to drink.

“I’ll go call Yoochun.”

Mina stands up, but stops when Chaeyoung’s hand is tugging her sleeve. She knows, whatever the girl’s got to say, she’d follow unconditionally.

“Stay here with me, just for a while.”

And Mina’s a lost cause. There’s nothing she can do except sitting down again and snuggling into Chaeyoung’s right side.

“Are you sure you’re not hurting somewhere? I can call…”

“It’s alright, Mina.”

Mina looks like she’s about to argue but then decides against it.

It takes a full ten minutes before she suddenly remembers something and jolts up.

"How dare you! I was so worried. When they brought you back in your unconscious state, I thought you had..."

She trails off, her voice becomes muffled, and tears start to flow uncontrollably. Mina is a timid person. She rarely gets loud, even when she cries, it's just tears and small sobs, and repressed sniffles. Chaeyoung knows that. So, it's safe to say, this time, seeing Mina sobbing loudly, Chaeyoung starts to panic. She tries to sit up, but fails miserably.

"I'm sorry, Mina. It's all my fault. Please don't cry." She panics when Mina cries even harder. "I'm a bad person. Here, hit me."

She brings one of Mina's hands to her cheek but Mina pulls her hand back like it is on fire.

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